苦しみに意味があると言えるのでしょうか

Commentaries genuinely diverge here, so read two or three rather than one. I heard a sermon on precisely this and I'll summarize how it was framed. If you're not in a hurry, come back to this in a year.

Tracing how the early church handled it locates the modern debate quite usefully.

It's fine to carry the question unresolved for a while. Practically: check the immediate context first, then compare the parallel passages.